Quidditch team seeking club status

A year after it was created, Ryerson’s Quidditch team is looking to become an official campus club. Alan Hudes reports

The Harry Potter franchise can officially add another piece to its legacy, as the mystical sport of Quidditch has taken on a life of its own at Ryerson.

After training and playing competitively for their first year, the team tried to apply as an official campus club. However, they were initially told that their application was denied because they were too much of a sporting group to be considered a campus club, but they were too much of a campus club to be considered a sports group.

To get around this problem, the team has changed their name to the Harry Potter Society and have re-applied with the Ryerson Students’ Union. If approved, the team would be provided with storage space and potential funding.

Although Ryerson’s Quidditch team has only been around since July 2010, it has played a number of friendlies against cross-town rivals at the University of Toronto.

Chris Lacroix, who plays as chaser in Ryerson’s team, says that new players need to avoid hesitation about participating in order to enjoy it.

“People will walk by and see a team playing and say ‘what is this?’” said Haley Pierce, a third-year chaser on Ryerson’s Quidditch team. “The amount of interest is definitely growing because when people see it, they want to get involved.”

Since last year, the team’s roster has doubled, as more and more people want to partake in the sport.

“Eventually people will have the courage to play the game themselves,” Lacroix said. “No one wants to be the first to put a broom between their legs and run around a field, because it is a ridiculous sport. That’s something that underpins the entire competition. No one wants to be the first to be ridiculous.”

And with the first Canadian Quidditch tournament only two months away, the team is looking to prove that they can compete on the national stage.

“We’re looking forward to proving to people that, as a small school, we can really [compete],” Pierce said.